[158] Cp. the manner in which the Dé Danann chiefs are often represented in the heroic romances, sitting in state in their dúns: e.g. Lugh Mac Cethlenn, in the story of Conn, thus enthroned, with a great tree in the doorway of his dún, and the birds singing on it.
[159] Revelation iv., xx., etc. Cp. the Book of Enoch, where One clad in white robes sits in glory in the crystal mansion, whence a river of fire issues.
[160] Revelation iv. 4; vi. 11, etc.
[161] A conception similar in kind, though different in form, is apparent in the dún with a hundred doors, and at each of them an altar, and a priest celebrating mass thereon, in the Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Ríagla. Cp. the Castle of the Graal in the Perceval romances. The accessories of Christian worship are frequently introduced into the Heaven of mediæval legends, though seldom with such minuteness as in our text. Cp. the seventh- or eighth-century legend of Saints Theophilus, Sergius, and Hyginus, who came to a church built of crystal and precious stones.—Ancona, op. cit., p. 32. This church, indeed, was not meant to symbolise Heaven, but corresponds to the churches on the mystical islands of the Irish Imrama. Praise and psalmody, as among the joys of Heaven, of course have Scripture warrant; it remained for Swedenborg to crown the bliss of his elect, who in other respects se réjouissent moult tristement, with the privilege of listening to sermons through all eternity.
[162] Cp. the Vision of Esdras, where the Apostles and Patriarchs and all the righteous are arrayed about the Tree of Life.
[163] Acallam na Sénórach, in Irische Texte, IV. i., II. 6089 sqq.
[164] Mr. Whitley Stokes aptly compares the three fiery orbs in Paradiso, xxxiii. 114 sqq. However, these orbs represent the visible manifestation of the Trinity, and do not appear as circles encompassing the Divine seat.
[165] It is curious to note how Dante employs this symbol to represent the Imperial eagle, in Purg. xxxii. 125 sqq., which, in its onslaught upon the car of the Church, reminds us how the bird Karshipta breaks off the branches of the Tree of Life in the Var of Yima. Surely this coincidence, and also the frequency of the culture bird in the myths of unconnected races, afford good examples of the independent origin of similar ideas. In the branch covered with life-giving berries, brought by the eagles in the Voyage of Maelduin, we may possibly have a modification of the popular Irish tradition, further influenced by the Phœnix legend, or, maybe, some Oriental tradition, derived through intercourse with the Eastern Churches.
[166] In some Continental visions the Cockayne idea assumes a form more accordant with the Scriptural imagery, the inhabitants of Paradise renewing their youth by eating the fruit of the Tree of Life and drinking the Waters of Life (Ancona, op. cit., p. 32). The last item is evidently suggested by Revelation xxii. 1, when the Waters of Life proceed from under the Throne, as in the Chaldæan myth. By a certain meeting of extremes the Cockayne idea passes over into asceticism; thus, in order to express the abundance and luxury of the mythical Elysium, it is said that a single loaf, or the very scent of the apple-trees, or the like, affords sufficient sustenance; in later developments we find in the Persian Paradise one loaf suffices for so many persons, Connla lives for a month on the apple brought him by the Leanamhán Sidhe, the fragrance of the candles in Adamnán’s Heaven yields sustenance enough, and so on.
[167] Thus, Tundale’s guardian angel quits him temporarily as he enters into Hell. See post.